Not reading "Legal mumbo jumbo" and not having a bit of good sense is the
kind of thing that can get you into serious troubles.
I am a "lurker" here and I have just "played" with AmForth.
I also sympathize more with the BSD licenses than with the GPL licenses.
BUT:
1) Mathias has chosen the GPL license, and he should have the freedom
of choosing what license he wants. It is his work.
And others should support his choice.
2) The view of "Forth" as an Operating System is (at least) seriously
flawed.
Yes, "software running under an operating system" is a thing, but the "GPL"
page on Wikipedia also says:
=======
"For example if a program consists only of own original custom software, or is
combined with source code from other software components, then the own custom
software components need not be licensed under GPL and need not make their code
available; even if the underlying operating system used is licensed under the
GPL, applications running on it are not considered derivative works. Only if
GPLed parts are used in a program (and the program is distributed), then all
other source code of the program needs to be made available under the same
license terms. The GNU Lesser General Public license (LGPL) was created to have
a weaker copyleft than the GPL, in that it does not require own
custom-developed source code (distinct from the LGPLed parts) to be made
available under the same license terms."
==========
And further down there is the clarification of what means an "aggregate" or a
"bundled version":
==========
'What is the difference between an "aggregate" and other kinds of "modified
versions"?
An "aggregate" consists of a number of separate programs, distributed together
on the same CD-ROM or other media. The GPL permits you to create and distribute
an aggregate, even when the licenses of the other software are non-free or
GPL-incompatible. The only condition is that you cannot release the aggregate
under a license that prohibits users from exercising rights that each program's
individual license would grant them.
Where's the line between two separate programs, and one program with two parts?
This is a legal question, which ultimately judges will decide. We believe that
a proper criterion depends both on the mechanism of communication (exec, pipes,
rpc, function calls within a shared address space, etc.) and the semantics of
the communication (what kinds of information are interchanged).
If the modules are included in the same executable file, they are definitely
combined in one program. If modules are designed to run linked together in a
shared address space, that almost surely means combining them into one program.
By contrast, pipes, sockets and command-line arguments are communication
mechanisms normally used between two separate programs. So when they are used
for communication, the modules normally are separate programs. But if the
semantics of the communication are intimate enough, exchanging complex internal
data structures, that too could be a basis to consider the two parts as
combined into a larger program.
The FSF thus draws the line between "library" and "other program" via 1)
"complexity" and "intimacy" of information exchange, and 2) mechanism (rather
than semantics), but resigns that the question is not clear-cut and that in
complex situations, case law will need to decide.
=======
On my personal opinion there are two different views:
1) You have made with AmForth a "program" that is "self-contained". It does
not use any AmForth words at run-time. You can argue that in that case AmForth
is used as an "Operating System", and that the GPL will not apply. If that
goes to court, you will need a very good lawyer and lots of good luck.
2) Your "program" uses "words" from AmForth at run-time. Then, it can be said
that the result is not an "aggregate" but a "linked version", because it needs
an "complex and intimate" knowledge of the forth words (not just names, but
addresses and stack passing conventions). On this case, your "program" uses
AmForth as a library and is under the GPL.
If you have any problems with the GPL, you should not be using GPL licensed
software, in ways that are not allowed by the GPL.
AmForth is GPL licensed software, it says so on the distribution files. Get
over it.
And please don't pester Matthias over the GPL terms.
Paulo Ferreira
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